SIBUR climate change rating above the average for European companies

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The international Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has published the results of an independent assessment of Russian companies in terms of their climate performance, and the climate ratings assigned to them, said the company.

In 2020, SIBUR’s score improved from C (awareness level) to B (management level). This result exceeds both Europe’s average rating (C) and the average score among global chemical companies (C). Over 9,600 companies across the world disclosed their environmental data to CDP this year.

CDP assesses companies on the comprehensiveness of their disclosure, their awareness and management of environmental risks and their demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership. Of all the categories assessed, CDP analysts assigned the highest score (leadership level) to SIBUR’s corporate governance processes and approaches to climate change risk management.

Every year, SIBUR discloses detailed information on its climate change performance and action. Precise targets for reducing GHG emissions are part of the Company’s sustainable development strategy, which is mandatory for the management under its performance assessment metrics. With the Management Board and Board of Directors now having their own Sustainable Development Committees, the climate change agenda has moved to the highest level at SIBUR Holding.

Verifying GHG emissions and measuring certain categories of emissions indirectly related to the Company’s operations (Scope 3) also contributed to the improved rating.

Alexey Kozlov, member of the Management Board and Managing Director at SIBUR, said: “Climate risk management has long since become a staple of responsible business practices. The leading companies are shifting focus towards carbon neutrality and circular economy. We can see how the petrochemical industry is coming up with effective solutions to fight global warming. SIBUR’s sustainable development strategy does not only include a set of climate impact mitigation targets, but also paves the way for the development of technologies for the recycling and reuse of advanced synthetic materials. Next year we will also focus on quantitative assessment of climate risks and building stronger climate change partnerships across the supply chain."

As per MRC, LyondellBasell, the world’s leading licensor of polyolefin technologies, announced that the Amur Gas Chemical Complex project, being implemented by SIBUR Holding PJSC, the largest integrated petrochemicals company in Russia, has selected LyondellBasell’s Spheripol technology for a new facility.

According to MRC's DataScope report, Russian companies increased external purchases of polypropylene in November, imports reached 20,400 tonnes against 17,900 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall PP imports into Russia reached 202,000 tonnes in January-November 2020, compared to 167,400 tonnes a year earlier. Purchasing of all grades of propylene polymers in foreign markets increased, with homopolymer PP imports accounting for the most noticeable rise.
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1. Jet fuel prices take flight as vaccine roll-outs spur hopes of more air travel

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Global jet fuel markets are coming back to life, resuscitated by a rebound in air cargo demand, gradually recovering passenger traffic and hopes that COVID-19 vaccines will spur more international flights in 2021, said Hydrocarbonprocessing. The pandemic brought air travel to a virtual halt this year, and analysts say it may take years before global appetite for jet fuel returns to pre-pandemic levels. But refining profits for the fuel surged to multi-month highs in all key trading hubs in December on hopes of higher demand in 2021, with U.S. and European margins underpinned by a recovery in air cargo volumes and Asian margins also by a rebound in domestic travel and heating consumption.



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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayer is selling a biologics substance facility at the company's Wuppertal, Germany, site part of its pharmaceuticals division to a German subsidiary of biopharmaceutical company WuXi Biologics (Wuxi, China), said Chemweek.

Under the agreement, the two companies will also enter into a long-term sublease agreement and a transitional service contract. WuXi Biologics intends to use the facility to manufacture drug substances for COVID-19 vaccines and other biologics, and is planning additional investments in process equipment at the site.

Bayer will provide services and contribute its own resources as WuXi Biologics ramps up the plant for the production of vaccines and other biologics. “This also marks an additional contribution by Bayer in the fight against the pandemic,” says Bayer site manager Timo Flessner.

The overall value of the transaction, including the sublease agreement, amounts to approximately EUR150.0 million (USD184.5 million). The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2021. Bayer had originally planned to use the facility to produce recombinant factor VIII products.

WuXi Biologics acquired a biologics plant at Leverkusen, Germany, from Bayer early this year.

As MRC informed earlier, Bayer swung to a third-quarter net loss of EUR2.74 billion (USD3.21 billion) from a net profit of EUR1.04 billion a year earlier on sales of EUR8.51 billion, down 5.1% on a currency- and portfolio-adjusted basis. The net loss includes non-cash impairment charges on intangible assets, and provisions, totaling EUR10.18 billion.

As MRC reported earlier, Covestro has closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus) rose in January-October 2020 by 21% year on year to 79,500 tonnes (65,600 tonnes a year earlier).

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Maire Tecnimont is to build new acrylic acid (AA) and butyl acrylate (butyl-A) units for Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) as part of a USD255m contract, the Italian chemical engineering firm said, said the company.

The AA and butyl-A units will have respective capacities of 90,000 and 150,000 tonnes/year. Both will be located at Dumad, near Vadodara, in India’s Gujarat state. Tecnimont Private Limited, the Indian entity of Tecnimont SpA, will carry out execution of the contract as a single point of responsibility, the company said in a statement on Monday, allowing 26 months for mechanical completion.

The overall value of the contract is about USD 255 million. The project scope entails Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning activities up to the Performance Guarantees Test Run. Once completed, the new Acrylic Acid Unit will have a capacity of 90,000 tons per year, while the new Butyl Acrylate Unit will have a capacity of 150,000 tons per year. The time schedule is 26 months for Mechanical Completion.

Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: “After the recent announcement of the MoU with IOCL to support the industrialization of green chemistry and circular economy in India, we consolidate a strategic relationship with such a prominent client also in the petrochemical business. Our technology-driven strategy enabled us once again to seize opportunities in a market with a very promising downstream investment cycle, thanks to the growing demand for petrochemical products. Finally, in sync with the strategic vision of the Government of India aimed at maximizing the “In Country Value”, our Indian entity will execute the job as a single point of responsibility, confirming its strong capabilities in managing big complex projects".

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, heads an industrial group which leads the global natural resource processing industry (downstream oil & gas plant engineering, with technological and executive expertise). Its subsidiary NextChem operates in the field of green chemicals and technologies in support of the energy transition. The Maire Tecnimont Group operates in 45 countries, through 50 companies and about 9,100 people.

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MOSCOW (MRC) - China will need refining capacity controls and bans on plastics to reach peak crude oil consumption of 720 million tonnes by 2025 if it is to cap its total carbon emissions before 2030, said Reuters.

The country needs to maintain crude oil refining capacity below 930 million tonnes by 2025, phase out outdated refineries with annual capacity of less than 5 million tonnes and optimize the structure of refined oil products, the 2020 China Oil Cap report said.

The report, commissioned by the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defence Council and Development Research Centre (DRC) of China's State Council, forecast China will add 140 million tonnes of refining capacity in the next five years from mega-sized integrated refining complex and shut down at least 70 million tonnes from small refineries in the smog-prone north and east.

"Coal consumption in China reached a peak in 2013 and has plateaued since then. However, the efforts of carbon reduction from coal are offset by the increase from oil and gas sectors," Yang Fuqiang, a contributor to the report, said.

As MRC informed previously, global oil demand may have already peaked, according to BP's latest long-term energy outlook, as the COVID-19 pandemic kicks the world economy onto a weaker growth trajectory and accelerates the shift to cleaner fuels.

Earlier this year, BP said the deadly coronavirus outbreak could cut global oil demand growth by 40% in 2020, putting pressure on Opec producers and Russia to curb supplies to keep prices in check.

And in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
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